Ritz Plaza Hotel Amritsar

... to hang theri heads in shame.
On a lighter note had to stop and have my photo taken with locals - then it was funny but I have a feeling after a few weeks (days?) I will be finding it very irritating!

Lunch - lots of yummy veggie dishes yes including a dhal - had to be done!

Then a tuktuk over to the Grand Hotel to arrange a visit to the border ceremony. Someone else wanted to do the trip that afternoon so we could share the cost. Had ...

... as a mail order bride or something on the internet to all those young guys who want to get into the UK.. Oh dear..

Our train left Amritsar at 6pm that evening, we were in sleeper class... this is basically flat, hard beds in with many other people, no aircon just fans, few cockroaches and some very interesting toilets.. 15 hours of this was to come... will let you know what happened next time..

Will post some pics from Amritsar tomorrow..

... ride), so wemt back to the van and then drove back to Amritsar. All of us were pretty hungry, so we found the only restaurant that didn't have a waiting list due to the holiday weekend and ate there. We tried to find a bar to go to and asked a cop where we could find one around here. He thought for a few minutes, said something to a richskaw driver, and the next thing we knew, we were at a "bar" aka a guest house where they owner would sell us beer at twice the normal ...

... asfalti ja tänavakive. Irrmus kuum. Kohati on maas ka vaibatükid, aga püüan säilitada eneseväärikust ja mitte vaibast vaibani karelda. Kohalikud vaatavad minu vaprust imetlusega. Jõuan viimaks plätudeni. Tunne on küll selline, nagu oleks talla all kuumavillid. Värskendan end jääkohviga ja suundun hotelli ennast külma veega üle valama. Milleks küll on inimesel vaja sooja vett?

Kusagil kella viieks sõidame Pakistani piirile, Wagah piiripunkti. Vahtkonnavahetus, mis kujutab ...

... Everyone here is Sikh it seems so you see men in colourful turbans and women in even more colourful punjabi dresses (a long tunic and baggy pants). The streets are much cleaner but there are hardly any stop lights so driving is a bit chaotic. No sidewalks. What does India have against sidewalks? Really, with the exception of Delhi, there hasn't been one place with a sidewalk. Actually Amritsar has the first traffic lights I've seen in over month but I digress ...

... utterly drowned! I ran to a nearby rickshaw and we both huddled inside, as huge hail the size of mothballs pelted down on us, coming in at an angle that really hurt and forced me to nestle right into the back offside corner!! We laughed and laughed, as he couldn't move for ages, with the amount of water under us!!

Eventually I went on the National Museum, where a further half an hour produced bright sunshine and the rain dried out. Once more, there were ...

... s welcome everyone to their temple, and even have free rooms for anyone who wants to stay. There is a dorm for foreigners, which is very nice, especially since they do not even have enough rooms for all the Sikh pilgrims who come to the temple. Once they run out of rooms, they are just given a mattress and a blanket and can sleep anywhere! I did feel a bit bad when I came out of my room and there were HUNDREDS of people sleeping all around the courtyard, and on the temple ...

... leper. So the Guru expanded the pond and gave it the name: Amrit Sarovar (which means holy water pool.) He began building the Golden Temple too. The temple was only gilded with gold after Maharaja Ranjit Singh, a Sikh Raja, donated the gold with which to cover the temple tops. The British took the original gold, but many Sikhs donated money and gold and the gold was replaced. Inside the Temple we got to see the original ...

... crossing numerous land borders during our trip, nothing had prepared us for what we were about to see. Both Pakistan and India have built massive grandstands surrounding the border where people from each country come to cheer on their guards, as they dual each other in a battle of yelling, high kicking, stomping, and scowling. Each side of the border had around 5000 people show-up for the event that is put on every day at sunset. The beginning ...

... real lunch later. I'm not exactly sure why the milk is so frequently warmed here for breakfast. It's like the default... if you are having any kind of cereal, the milk has got to be hot. Oh well, it works out for people like Rebecca who find warm cereals yummy. After breakfast, we walk the 3 blocks to Jallianwala Bagh. For those that don't know, Jallianwala Bagh is a place where a british general by the name of Dyer, marched in on a peachful, non-violent gathering and ...